Nick Holz’s Health Transformation Journey

I was obsessively avoiding seed oils, taking 10+ different supplements daily, and working out like a professional.

So why was my health worsening?
Why was it impossible to gain weight?
Why did I have the bloodwork of an 80-year-old man?

The reality was everything I was obsessing over was destroying my health.

Cooking, lifting weights, and meditation got me hooked, and five years later, I thought I had it all figured out. 

But then I found out I had a “leaky gut”…

This news came as a shocking wake-up call. I spent most of my adolescence thinking I was the spitting image of health until this moment.

I wanted to understand why this was happening and if it was an issue, so I reached out to a functional medicine doctor to get a second opinion.

She had me take a stool test to take a closer look at my digestion, immune health, levels of inflammation, and my ability to digest nutrients.

Here’s a summary of my results:

So what does this mean?

When you have a leaky gut, the food doesn’t get properly turned into energy. Food leaks out of your intestines and into your bloodstream, making it easier for parasites, yeast infections, and other bad guys to take over.

Think about going to war…if your city walls are not well built and easy to break through, it will be trivial for your enemy to take control.

I needed to rebuild my city walls to prevent my enemies from doing any more damage.

Here are the steps I took:

1. No more eating out
2. Quit drinking booze
3. Very high protein diet 
4. Trained more + harder
5. Hit the sauna 5x/week
6. Take a ton of herbal supplements 

After six months, I got retested, and all the parasites were gone. I successfully rebuilt my walls to protect enemies from coming into my city.

But this didn’t resolve all my issues…

I was still chronically underweight, lacking energy, struggling to balance my hormones, and depressed. So, my doctor referred me to 7 different specialists, and they all had the same reactions as her. This is when I realized I had to stop waiting for someone/something to heal me and start taking responsibility for my own pain.

So, I looked back on the past six months. Some things helped me heal my gut walls…

-Herbal supplements (but bone broth would have been just as effective + cheaper)

-High-protein intake (this is why the carnivore diet is commonly advised for gut issues)

But most of the things I did were self-punishment for not being as healthy as I thought I should have been…

• No alcohol
• No more eating out
• Train more + harder
• Hit the sauna 5x/week

These actions were super extreme and made me more stressed than I already was.

It was a moment of clarity, a turning point in my health journey. I realized that the path I’d been following wasn’t leading me to wellness but further into confusion and distress. I needed to get back to the essentials, to the practices and habits that resonated with my body and soul. I needed to shift my focus from following rigid routines and chasing after elusive health ideals to embracing a lifestyle that was balanced, sustainable, and truly aligned with my unique needs. Here’s how I began to transform my life:

Low Vitamin D 👉 get more sun

Low T (Testosterone)  👉 reduce training volume 

Underweight 👉 eat more calories

No energy 👉 start a consistent sleep schedule

Depressed 👉 leave house more + meditate daily 

My bloodwork started gradually improving, and I was feeling a little better every day. Many of these changes impacted each other (e.g.: more sun = happier + higher Vitamin D levels + higher T + more energy).

There’s a reason why the basics are the basics.

Within this time frame, I also…

• Started dating again
• Got my energy levels back
• Regained my passion for lifting
• Put on 20 lbs of lean muscle mass
• Started nutrition/lifestyle coaching
• Swapped depression for gratitude
• Ditched an eating disorder (orthorexia)
• Improved my relationships with friends/family

I dedicate this success to my consistency and my constant evaluation of the process. 

Some days I got no sunlight, got a poor night of sleep or didn’t eat enough calories, but this didn’t impact my results because I didn’t let it become a habit. I got back on track the next day and focused all of my energy on creating a future I wanted to see. 

I used to beat myself up constantly for not being perfect and dwelling on the negatives, but this only made it harder to see a better alternative to my current approach.

Now, I seek imperfection because I see the opportunity it provides. I focus on the growth that can arise from my pain instead of dwelling on the pain.

My health journey has given me the wisdom, passion, and confidence to help others struggling with similar issues as me. 

This is because of first-hand experience with:

• Healing gut issues
• Gaining/losing weight
• Fixing nutrient deficiencies
• Getting through an eating disorder

I know there are people out there struggling with these issues, and I want to be of service to them so they don’t feel confused, scared, and/or depressed like I was. This is why I have dedicated my life to helping people transform their nutrition/lifestyle. Honestly, there is nothing else I’d rather do in this world. I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing for the first time in my entire life. 

Nick’s health transformation journey has been a rollercoaster, hasn’t it? Just like him, we believe in getting to know our bodies and making smart choices to live healthier and happier lives. Sometimes, it’s all about going back to the basics, listening to ourselves, and finding what really works.

Getting some Vitamin D, truly listening to ourselves, exercising, finding the nutritional plan that suits you the best, and being grateful—these are the building blocks that can truly transform your life. They’re not groundbreaking secrets but time-tested truths that we can all lean on.